Dr. Khalid Zaheer’s Blog

We have been told time and again by religious people that it is binding on all Muslims to follow ijma‘ (the consensus of opinion of religious scholars on a certain issue). On the contrary we (i.e. me and the school of thought I am representing) believe that ijma‘ has no role to play in determining the acceptability of an opinion on religious matters.

Our position on the issue is that what the majority of scholars say about the authenticity of ijma‘ has no religious basis whatsoever. Our religion is based on the teachings of the Qur’an and sunnah which have both been transmitted to us through undisputable sources. There has never been an ijma‘, not even on a single matter of religious understanding, except on the fact that Qur’an and sunnah have been transmitted authentically.

How can one prove that all Muslim scholars of the ummah agreed on a certain matter when we don’t even have a reliable research that tells us the correct number of scholars the Muslim ummah has produced? Who is going to define what a scholar is? Even if we were able to define a scholar who would tell whether they were five thousand in all, ten thousand, one million, or what?

Has the process of their production stopped or is still going on? If scholars of the present times don’t count, when then did the genuine Islamic scholarship end? Who would decide that the process has stopped or is still continuing? Even if by some miracle a remarkable research answering all these questions convincingly is done, how would one go about proving that all those thousands or millions of scholars agreed on a certain issue? Has anyone the ability to go back through the time tunnel to meet each one of them to know their opinion? We normally learn about the views of people of the past through what they have written themselves or through what others write about their views. However, most of them may never have written anything on the issue nor anyone else may have written about their views.

What if there is a tiny minority of scholars that disagrees? Going by the existing trend of narrow-minded religious people, if there is a minority opinion, it should be rejected because it goes against ijma‘. The question is, if there is a minority opinion on a certain issue, how could there be an ijma‘ claimed on it? And if the entire population of scholars agrees on an issue, and nobody can disagree on it, what then is the utility of this concept of ijma‘?

The fact of the matter is that ijma‘ is an unnecessary term that has been coined by some Muslims. It serves no purpose except that it confuses people or helps some conservative Muslims in condemning certain religious views as heretical simply because they find them different from what they have been trained to accept. When some religious people don’t find convincing reasons to satisfy their followers that the religious view competing with theirs is incorrect, they use the tool of ijma‘ to influence the ordinary people to convince them that the other view is incorrect and misleading. The end result of this exercise is that instead of concentrating on the issue from the point of view of the arguments of Qur’an and sunnah, people are emotionally blackmailed into accepting a religious view on the basis of ijma‘. This tendency is misleading and condemnable.

Muslims, whether they are scholars or non-scholars, are expected to follow the truth under all circumstances. The truth about the religion of Islam is contained in the Qur’an and sunnah. Anyone who looks for religious understanding from outside these two sources is being unfair in his pursuit of truth and is biased towards the opinion of scholars he likes. This tendency is clearly against the Qur’anic expectation from believers which says this: “O you who have attained faith! Be ever steadfast in upholding justice, bearing witness to the truth for the sake of God, even though it goes against your own selves or your parents or kinsfolk.” (4:135) How can we be fair in forming a religious opinion if we are not even listening to the religious points of view other than those we think belong to our religious group? May Allah Almighty enable us to see the truth as truth and give us the ability to follow it and may He enable us to see the untruth as untruth and give us the ability to stay away from it. Amen.

One of my colleagues at my university asked my students to not listen to what my teacher, Javed Ahmed Ghamidi, says on religious matters because, he claims, his views are representative of only a tiny minority. Following views on Islam that are not supported by a large number of ulama, according to him, is misleading. Further, there are also comments like this sent to students: “What are you going to do on the Day of Judgment when all scholars of the ummah will be on one side and you along with Mr Ghamidi will be on the other, lonely, side?”

When we are confronted with religious differences, the ultimate criterion to decide which of the views is correct is the Qur’an. This fact is so natural that every unbiased individual would appreciate it. In the absence of the book of God, one could have felt the need to look for other sources; if the book of Allah is with us, resorting to other sources is clearly misleading. The Qur’an itself emphasizes this fact in several of its passages. The Qur’an declares itself to be al-Furqan, the ultimate criterion that would clarify what is right in religious matters from what is wrong (25:1). It declares that its message is al-Mizan, the balance that acts to weigh the value of acceptable elements in religious views from the ones that are not acceptable (42:17). It mentions that from after its revelation till the day of Judgment, it is its verdicts that would serve to be Muhaimin (guardian) over all the previous divine books (5:48). It also clarifies that even the prophet, alaihissalaam, could not do or say anything that went contrary to Qur’anic description (10:15). It, furthermore, insists that God’s purpose behind revealing all His books was to ensure that the books “give the correct verdict to men in (religious) matters where they disagreed.” (2:213)

Given the above facts, all serious-minded, truth-seeking Muslims should look for the correct understanding of the Qur’an, wherever they can get it from. It is the verdict of the Qur’an that would serve to enlighten them to know whether the truth in different matters of religion lies with the majority or minority of scholars. It could be that in some matters one scholar is right and in another, some other may hold the correct view. For the purpose of knowing the correct religious view, one should always continue to look for views of scholars in the light of the arguments they present from the Qur’an.

When the Qur’an makes such clear claims that its teachings are the ultimate source of knowledge, then could it be that those teachings are designed by the Almighty to remain inaccessible to the common man, in a way that he remains dependent on the reputation and quantity of scholars to judge whether a certain religious view is correct or misleading? The entire claim of the Qur’an that it is the most significant source of religious knowledge is attempted to be reduced to nothing by those people who concoct arguments from their own minds to prove that for most of the Muslims the Qur’an is not a book of guidance; instead, it is their scholars who are the only real source of guidance for them.

My religious guide, Javed Ahmed Ghamidi, says that the Qur’an is the ultimate source of guidance for all Muslims, whether they are scholars or non-scholars. The former should get guidance from the book of Allah directly. The common Muslims should try as best as they can to find out which one amongst the diverse views of scholars in a certain matter seems to be the closest to the Qur’anic message. He never insists that people should follow his point of view only. Instead, he believes that those scholars who are insisting that common people should follow their views blindly are misleading them.

The Qur’an declares that on the Day of Judgment, the prophet, alaihissalaam, is going to plead against a certain group of people to the Almighty not because they went against the majority opinion of Muslim scholars, but because they ignored the Qur’an: “And the Messenger will say my Lord, my people deserted this Qur’an.” (25:30)

I therefore believe that the statements of my colleague are an attempt to emotionally scare people to not do their own research to find out the truth.

This indeed is a very serious problem. People resort to emotionalism only when they lose on the front of arguments. What would people do on the Day of Judgment if the Almighty would ask them why they didn’t bother to understand and follow His book when it was presented to them? The Qur’an says that on that day all those people who were mislead because they blindly followed their leaders will face serious disappointment: “When those who were followed would disown those who followed them . and their relations will be cut off from them. And those who followed would say, ‘If only we had one more chance to return (to the worldly life) we would disown them as they have disowned us.’” (2:166-7) The prophet, alaihissalaam, is reported to have said “The Qur’an shall serve as an evidence (on the day of Judgment) either in favour of you or against you.”